How Much Would Your Rent Have Been in 1943?

In 1943, the NYT and three newspaper-friends joined forces to compile New York City Market Analysis, which charted the city by the numbers. Now, CUNY Grad Center’s Center for Urban Research has digitized the tome, and the result — Welcome to 1940s New York — is a demographic tour of the city circa WWII.

So how much would you have paid for your Park Slope digs? Probably somewhere between $30 and $50 a month, with rents dipping even lower (then as now) as you veer closer to 4th Ave and rising as you hit the park. Adjusted for inflation, that’s between $399 and $665. (Looks like things have gotten significantly ritzier since then.)

You can also thumb through the original analysis of the Slope, which includes basic statistical info (“numerous Italians to the west”), photos of the neighborhood as it was in its pre-coffee-shop days, and assorted commentary (“This district is one of the best for chain grocery stores, although most of them are smaller service outlets”). But while there may not be enough brownstones to satiate to 2012 demand, it turns out Park Slope has actually gotten sparser since 1940: as part of the project, CUR’s compared census data, and concludes that the area’s seen a 31% population drop in the past 70 years. No word on whether there are more or fewer chain grocery stores.